Friday, July 05, 2013

I have been waiting for some time to
get an official request from Edward Snowden in regard for application for Icelandic
citizenship. Yesterday the request came, and me and members of 4
parties in the Icelandic parliament put forward a bill urging the
parliament to process his request.

It is important to put current political situation in Iceland into perspective. We had election April 27th
this year. After elections we always have summer parliament session.
The newly elected government is very different from the last
government that was elected in the wake of the financial collapse.
This new government intentions is to bring us back to the same form of
governing as we had before and lead us to the 3rd largest
financial collapse in the history of the world. Non of the wisdom nor the attempts for democratic
reform and more open society we gained just after the collapse will
stick under the reign of this new governing.

Yesterday was the last day of summer
parliament and thus utterly critical that we would be allowed to speak
for the Snowden citizenship bill in order to move it to the General
committee in order to be able to start fact gathering on behalf of
the parliament so we could move this bill forward despite the parliament
not being in session. The new speaker of the house denied our request
to put the bill on the agenda yesterday. I put forward a motion for
the parliament to vote for it to be spoken for. The entire
majority said NO to this process, except for 5 who said neither yes
or no. The entire minority supported the motion but that was not
enough.

So it is with great grief I have to
announce that Snowden will not be getting any form of shelter in
Iceland because the current government doesnt even have enough spine
for the parliament to discuss Snowden´s request. The parliament wont
be coming together again until the 10th of September.

I hope we have set an example for other
parliaments that remain is session this summer or gather sooner then
ours to give Snowden citizenship for he has been made stateless by
his own government for blowing the whistle on grave human rights
violations by his and other governments against all of humanity. I am
thankful towards the minority parties in Iceland for supporting the Pirate
Party and of course Snowden in this attempt to help him. I and many others regard him as a
hero and have deep respect for him for he has taken
great personal risk in order to inform the rest of us about how those
in power have lost control of their powerlust and violated their own
constitutions against their own citizens.

Mr Snowden your courage has
been noted and there are millions of people from all backgrounds who
honor the risks you have taken for us and we will stand tall with you.

Thursday, July 04, 2013

Today all the members of the Icelandic
Pirate Party and members from 3 other parties, including party chair
of the Social Democrats and former Interior Minister put forward in
the Icelandic Parliament a bill to urge the parliament to grant
Edward J. Snowden citizenship. The parliament has finally received a
request for citizenship from Mr Snowden and many of the
parliamentarians believe it is their duty to offer Mr Snowden shelter
for his USA passport has been stripped from him and has been left
de-facto stateless by his own government. The parliamentarians and
many Icelanders share the same concerns as Amnesty International that
if extradited to the USA Mr Snowden could be at risk of ill-treatment
and possibly a subject of torture. No one should be charged for
disclosing information of human rights violations. Such disclosures
are protected under the rights to information and freedom of
expression. The current governmental parties did not have the guts to
co-sponsor the bill, however they still have time to change their
minds, since the parliament is heading into recess. The reason for
the delay in putting forward the bill is that the parliament had not
received a formal request from Snowden until today. It is impossible
to predict if Snowden will be granted citizenship, this is more of a
statement for the time being and an encouragement to the governmental
parties to stand tall for human rights and by those that call upon
our doors while faced with grave danger.

The following parties and members of
parliament sponsored the bill of granting Snowden citizenship.